Boldly

by Claudia Bonitatibus, Mel Gross, Karina Lara, Caroline Scheinfeld, Ryan Van Dongen

Project Overview

Boldly is a mobile app that connects content creators and brands for social media marketing purposes through a system that is based on like-minded values and interests. Four of us, in addition to 7 CCI students, are building this out for our senior project. We started in Junior Workshop and continued the research, design and development for a new and improved app.

Coming into the year with an existing product was beneficial, but this meant that we had some gaps to fill. Thus, our focus for this course was to dive deep into research for our collaborative contract building feature. Our intention is to bring more transparency and communication to the processes surrounding contracts, specifically in the influencer industry. With that said, our objective is to combine key takeaways from data collected in this course with best digital practices to be incorporated into our designs.

Problem Statement

Boldly needs to simplify the processes surrounding contracts between creators and brands by understanding our users’ motivations and pain points.

1. GoalsCreate a two-way channel of communication between content creators and brand managers and facilitate the contractual process by building a more transparent and equitable work compensation
2. Provide a platform that delivers value and connects both content creators and brand representatives

Hypothesis

We believe that creating a collaborative contract building system for content creators and brands will achieve a more transparent and mutually beneficial experience between both parties.

We’ll know this is true when we see that most users from both sides prefer it to traditional contract systems.

Participants and Methods

Interviews

We interviewed five people with relevant experience in content creation, brand management, or contract law.

I Like / I Wish / What If

For this exercise, we focused on people who had worked previously with contracts. We asked about what they like about working with contracts and what they wish to see to make the process of signing a contract easier. Each of the participants brought terms like “contract language”, “contract accessibility” and digital features they would like to see in a near future.

Surveys

We sent the survey to different influencer and marketing groups and communities on facebook. We also sent the survey to personal connections we know that work in the field of content creation and legal professionals. For the desirability testing we sent the test to the group of people who answered the screening survey who agreed to continue to be part of our research process.

Quantitative Research

Trustworthiness of Digital Agreements

Frequency of Reading Through an Entire Agreement

Confidence Understanding Contract Requirements

Comfort Level with Negotiating Agreements

Negotiation Frequency

Survey Findings

The results from our survey shows that the people we are designing for have varying levels of comfort and understanding of contracts and negotiations. What this means for us moving forward is that we are going to have to get creative and do many iterations of usability testing in order to find a system that makes the contract agreement and negotiation process more comfortable for our users.

• Formatting is important for clarity and understanding
• The negotiation process needs to be a more comfortable for both parties
• Among our participants, brand managers/marketers are least likely to negotiate agreements

Desirability Testing Findings

Qualitative Research

Word Cloud

We should have a permanent chain of conversation, as well as a way to access and read through current and past contract documents on different platforms.

Creators appreciate having a bulleted summary for quick reference but we should prioritize legal language and encourage users to read through and understand all terms.

Creators want more transparent information about what triggers a breach of contract and how it impacts their connection.

Brands should initiate the contract process and create the first draft, with the ability to have non-negotiable terms.

We need to protect ourselves legally and add a disclaimer that this feature is not replacing legal advice and that the users should consult a legal professional.

Common Term Types

These are the most predominant terms in contracts according to our study, the clauses that we need to suggest our users to consider when writing their contracts.

• Copyright
• Location (geographical and online)
• Duration
• Perpetuity
• Confidentiality
• Exclusivity
• Royalties
• Intellectual Property
• Liability
• Breach and Termination
• Subrogation
• Legal Costs
• State Law/Jurisdiction
• Payment trigger
• Force Majeure

Conclusions

With the research results we put the swim lanes together that describes the dynamics between creator, brand and a

Swim Lanes

Prioritization Grid

Our findings this term validated our initial goals and introduced us to some pertinent information.

We are excited to start the design process based on this data next term!